"Anastasia—Dead or Alive"
is a NOVA
classroom activity that uses the shape of
an ear to determine if Anna Anderson is an Anastasia impersonator.

In "Who Ate the Cheese?"
students
simulate electrophoresis and DNA fingerprinting to solve the mystery.

Have students
watch the NOVA
video "The Boldest Hoax"
about the Piltdown hoax and have them
do the accompanying activity. Using the student
handout ,
student teams will determine whether
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Darwin, Sir Arthur Smith Woodward, or
Martin Hinton perpetuated the hoax.

The NOVA
activity, "Hunt for the Serial Arsonist,"
students use the "At Your Fingertips"
handout to determine which fingertip
pattern is the dominant one in the class. They compare their
results to the general population.

In
the "Last Flight of Bomber 31" NOVA
activity, the objective is to identify which members of a family share
the same mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). An anthropologist has
found a few human bones at a site in South Africa.
Investigators think they might belong to a Nobel Prize-winning dung
beetle biologist who disappeared in Africa. Since the bones
have been exposed to severe weather for many years, the only DNA that
may be salvageable is mtDNA. Students use the pedigree chart
in the "The Hunt for mtDNA"
handout to determine which family
members of the missing biologist are eligible to donate mtDNA for
comparison.

Play trueTV'sonline
games that include "The
Fingerprint Game"
along with others.

Try this
"Forensic Science"
wordsearch puzzle with
answers .

Have
students do this "Forensic Science"
crossword puzzle.

"Bones
and the Badge"
is a WebQuest
activity that presents 6 different cases and their evidence for
students to solve the crime. Each student group could be
assigned a different case, but at least one computer connected to the
internet for each group would be a necessity unless the teacher printed
out each scenario. These are the teacher pages.

"Measurable You"
introduces the
Bertillonage, an anthropometric measurement system developed to
identify and track people in the penal system in the late 19th and
early 20th centuries. It includes a "Bertillonage Measurement
diagram"
and a student "Anthropometric
Measurements" sheet .

This
"Entomology in Action"
activity
introduces students to the blow fly's life cycle and the accumulated
degree hour (ADH) used by forensic entomologists for estimating the
time of death. All the materials needed for the activity are
included in PDF form.

In "DNA--a Molecular Identity"
students
learn about what DNA is and several different DNA typing techniques. In
Lesson 2, students examine three different situations where DNA typing
was used to carry out justice. Students also identify and evaluate
different uses of DNA typing techniques and its possible benefits and
misuses. Again, all materials needed are in the PDF format.

If you live close to NYC, take
your students on a field trip to Discovery
Times Square for CSI
The Experience. It opens October 1, 2011 and goes through
March 4, 2012.

In the "FORENSICS: Murder at the Toy Store"
mystery, students use a microscope to observe trace evidence, extract
DNA, create shoe transfer patterns, and examine online evidence to
determine "Who dunnit."

In trueTV's
Forensics In the Classroom "The
Cafeteria
Caper,"
students do an indicator enzyme test,
hair analysis, and blood, chromosome, and DNA analysis to solve the
crime.

As an
introduction to the unit, I had students:

read
about "Hair Evidence"
and do the accompanying worksheet .
Maria Ferraro added fiber evidence to this worksheet .

"Case
of the Crown Jewels" is
a classroom activity that allows
students to explore how the unique sequence of bases in DNA can be used
to identify individuals. It includes a pre-lab activity, a
laboratory preparation guide, extension activities, and a post-lab
activity.

At "Science
Mystery" Each mystery takes the
form
of an illustrated short story, with the reader included as a character
in the narrative. The opening establishes the setting, characters, and
the problem(s) to be solved. In the middle pages, the reader gathers
data ("clues") about the problem by talking to characters, performing
experiments, and so on.: http://www.sciencemystery.com/

Students
can learn about many aspects of forensic science from the CSI
televisions series' "Web Adventures": http://forensics.rice.edu/

Tom
Adairis a retired senior criminalist and past president of the
Association for Crime Scene Reconstruction (ACSR) who has written a new
e-book entitled Planning Your Career in Forensics for students,
teachers, guidance counselors, parents, and others wanting to enter the
profession profession or mentor someone who does. His e-book can
be found on Amazon.com for $2.99: http://www.amazon.com/Planning-Your-Career-Forensics-ebook/dp/B008HU6ME8